Spanoulis agreed to play for Houston, at a price of $1,944,000 USD gross income per season, for 3 years, passing up on his former team Panathinaikos Athens' much larger offer of €1.6 million euros net income per season, over 3 years, just for a chance of playing in the NBA. Spanoulis made the Rockets' rotation,[33] but eventually, there was a falling out between him and Rockets coach Van Gundy, after Van Gundy benched Spanoulis, after the coach claimed that he had played poorly, citing that rookie players are dangerous for coaches that are in contract years, and that Spanoulis was too turnover prone and lacking in outside shooting touch to be a good fit in Van Gundy's offensive system design. Said Van Gundy about the situation: "(Spanoulis) says, 'I was [Tracy] McGrady back home.' Great. McGrady is McGrady here," .. "I feel badly for him. He feels he was misled. Frankly, he's been his own worst enemy in many ways. Some of it is excuses. His turnovers have been high; his fouls have been high; his shooting percentage has been low. I would rather anybody start out with self-evaluation — what can I do better? — versus lash out and blame. Because I'm not playing him now doesn't mean he won't play in the future or we don't feel he could be a good player. I think he's allowed his disappointment to go to discouragement, which has, at times, stunted his improvement. We'll see. We'll see."[34]

Basically, he opted out of a lucrative Euro deal to go play for them after they acquired his rights. They said all the right things about wanting to bring him over and being high on him, but then JVG basically barely played him at all. All he wanted was an opportunity he didn't get...I mean, he didn't handle himself very well as shit happened, but he basically wouldn't have left for the NBA unless he thought he had a guaranteed role on a team. And Houston didn't exactly have stellar PGs, with Rafer Alston being their starter for the year. After the season he basically asked to be bought out so he could go back to Greece, which Houston did by trading him to San Antonio who bought him out. Anyway, he felt totally disrespected because he was basically treated like a 3rd stringer who had to prove himself from day one.

It should be noted the guy Van Gundy chose to start for the whole year was Rafer Alston....who led their team in minutes. He was not a good shooter (a streaky 3 pt shooter who couldn't do anything else really), and he was also turnover prone. When that's the guy being not just being played ahead of you, but you only see the court in 31 games, I'm sure it totally destroys your confidence and motivation....

Google says he made 2.6M Euro in 2012, which is about 3.3M USD. Parker made $4M as a Raptor, and that was 7 years ago. I could see Spanoulis being tempted with a similar $4M/yr contract to come to the NBA. Just not sure if he's worth it though.

Google says he made 2.6M Euro in 2012, which is about 3.3M USD. Parker made $4M as a Raptor, and that was 7 years ago. I could see Spanoulis being tempted with a similar $4M/yr contract to come to the NBA. Just not sure if he's worth it though.

Many of the Euro contracts are not taxed as heavily as in the NBA as well, so that widens the gap.

I am not saying he wont come over, I am saying that I doubt Toronto is going to offer him a big enough contract to make him sign on with us to maybe make the playoffs?

Man, I know it's a small sample, but these euroleague games seem like they'd be way more fun to watch live than the NBA. The whole 'soccer-esque crowd' really compliments the flow of a basketball game.

Man, I know it's a small sample, but these euroleague games seem like they'd be way more fun to watch live than the NBA. The whole 'soccer-esque crowd' really compliments the flow of a basketball game.

I've never seen an NBA game live so I can't compare, but I saw a Euroleague game in Berlin between Alba Berlin and Anadolu Efes, and it was incredible. Anadolu Efes is a very good Turkish team--they had Jordan Farmar and Semih Erden on their roster at the time--and Berlin has an absolutely massive Turkish population. The arena was sold out to its 14,500 person capacity, and it seemed like there were almost as many Efes supporters as Berlin. It was a hard-fought, close game right up until the end. Really great experience, both teams had fan sections doing a variety of memorized chants, and to top it all off my seats were 3rd row baseline and only cost 14€ each.